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Can FSU go wire to wire again?

Corey Clark, Tallahassee Democrat 4:42 p.m. EDT August 23, 2014

This memorable catch by Peter Warrick in the 2000 Sugar Bowl sealed the Seminoles' national championship win over Virginia Tech. FSU became the first team in history to go wire to wire ranked No. 1 in the country.(Photo: Mike Ewen)

It doesn't guarantee national championships — far from it, in fact — and other than a few glossy magazine covers it doesn't create anything tangible either.

A preseason No. 1 ranking, like the one the Florida State Seminoles have been overwhelmingly awarded with in 2014, doesn't come with a trophy or a crystal ball.

Just, perhaps, some extra pressure.

"If you let it, it can be," FSU head coach Jimbo Fisher said. "At the end of the day you've got to go play all your games and you've got to play well. It doesn't matter where we're ranked.

Not to say that I'm not very proud we're ranked there and it signifies what's going on with our program, but at the same time we've got to go play like a No. 1 team. Or a very good team."

Of the 35 teams that have been ranked No. 1 in the AP preseason poll since 1978, just five have gone on to win the national championship. The good news for Seminole fans? Two of those five were Florida State, which took home the 1993 title and then became the first squad in college football history to go "wire to wire" when it won the 1999 national championship as well.

The first two times Florida State was ranked No. 1 in the country didn't go so well, of course.

The 1988 Seminoles crashed and burned in the Orange Bowl to open the season, losing 31-0 to the Miami Hurricanes. But then rebounded to win their final 11 games and finish No. 3 in the country.

In 1991, the Seminoles were ranked No. 1 again.

But unlike three years prior, they used their better judgment and decided not to release a rap video before the season began.

Casey Weldon was a member of both of those teams. He was in the "Seminole Rap" video in 1988 as a backup quarterback, and then was the starting QB in 1991.

So he saw and felt first-hand the weight of expectations that can come with being ranked preseason No.1. And maybe more importantly, he and his teammates figured out how to deal with that "1" by their name much better the second time around.

"We just didn't know how to handle it," Weldon said of the 1988 team. "So we went and did that (video) and then got embarrassed in the Orange Bowl. In 91, it was different. We had eaten that humble pie and we knew (the ranking) didn't mean anything.

"And I do think Coach (Bobby) Bowden had us prepared and we took every game seriously. Plus, we had so much depth that you knew you had to perform every week in practice just to keep your job."

Weldon's backups that year? Brad Johnson and Charlie Ward.

So while the Seminoles didn't end up winning the national title in 1991, it wasn't because they were busy writing rap lyrics. They won their first 10 games that year, then lost to the No. 2 team in the country by a point. On a missed field goal.

Since that 1991 season, Florida State has won two national titles after being ranked No. 1 in the preseason. The rest of college football has done it once. And that was Southern Cal in 2004.

The two other squads in the last 35 years to accomplish the feat were Alabama in 1978 and Oklahoma in 1985.

So yes, what Florida State is hoping to do in 2014 is rare.

But while it's certainly possible preseason expectations can be an extra weight to carry – the target on your back is quite large when you're the No. 1 team in the country – there's no way to truly quantify whether it can actually affect a team's outcome.

After all, it's hard to win a national championship, period. No matter where you start the preseason ranked.

Weldon would argue the 1991 team didn't win the national title because a last-minute kick was a foot too far to the right. Not because of a preseason ranking.

The same could be said for the 1995 team, which could argue that it didn't win the title because its star tailback was stopped an inch short of the goal line on the last play of the game in Charlottesville, Virginia.

But while rankings will always matter to an extent, losses like these may not be nearly as heartbreaking moving forward in the new landscape of college football.

Florida State doesn't have to be No. 1 or No. 2 after the regular season is concluded to get a shot at the title. With the new college football playoff system being implemented this year, the Seminoles need to just be one of the top 4 teams in the country — as determined by the Selection Committee.

So a loss in the regular season doesn't necessarily crush title hopes. Especially considering a No. 1 team likely won't drop so far down that a climb back into the Top 4 seems impossible.

When Warrick Dunn was stopped short at Virginia, those Florida State players knew they had very little chance of playing for a national title.

When that kick sailed right against Miami in 1991, Weldon and his teammates felt like the season was over.

Things are different now.

While only five of the previous 35 preseason No. 1's have gone on to win the national championship, 21 have indeed finished in the top 4. Which, starting this year, is good enough to give yourself a shot.

As for Fisher? His message has been the same since last year's team ascended to No. 1 in the nation in late November.

"We just have to play well," he said. "That's all we can control."

Lucky No. 6?

This marks the sixth season the FSU football team has been ranked preseason No. 1. Here's a look at how the Seminoles did the other five times: